A Geek Bill Of Rights

Freedom from multimedia. The important things in school happen inside a student's head. They involve words and numbers and ideas, and are transmitted by reading and by the teacher's voice. But the computer industry, which makes its money by enticing people to upgrade machines and software to run sophisticated music, audio and animation programs, is pushing the idea that kids should spend less time thinking, writing and calculating, and more time acting like music-video directors. Some dazzled educators succumb to the temptation, in effect adding "rendering" as a fourth R. Exile the flashy software to the school's media lab, and ban PowerPoint from the classroom.

Freedom from predators. No one can physically snatch a kid online, but it's all too common for very nasty adult strangers to make contact with kids, often winning trust with deception. Every child should be free to engage in e-mail and instant messaging without having to fend off these creeps. Then there are the less dangerous but much more prevalent forms of digital child-predation, including relentless marketing. We have some good laws on both these problems but need stronger enforcement and more effective programs to make kids aware of the dangers.

Filter the filters. Yes, online porn is shockingly available to young surfers. But thousands of schools and libraries are already dealing with it, without resorting to Internet filters that block out vital information as well as sites that focus on vital body parts. It would be tragic if, in an attempt to find a panacea for porn, we prevented kids from getting the data they need for their school reports or to satisfy their curiosity.

To me these rules are, well, self-evident. But you probably have opinions of your own. Let's begin a discussion about what technology kids absolutely need, and then figure out how to deliver it.

© 2003